Soila Bevins asked 6 months ago
Bookmakers and casinos give themselves an edge and 99% of men and women fall into their “trap”. How do this is accomplished and what should be avoided?
Let’s look at the example of roulette in a casino.
On the surface, it looks OK. 36 numbers, choose one and obtain 35-1 in the event that you are correct right? Wrong. most people forget that you will find actually 37 numbers including zero (as well as 38 with a double zero on American roulette). This make a significant difference in relation to payouts. So just using European roulette, let’s crunch the numbers.
If you choose one number, the specific odds of getting that number correct is 1 in 37 or 36-1. So by offering 35-1, the great online casino gambling has instantly stacked the odds ever so subtly in their favour. Just the reduction of 1 point gives the house an advantage of about 2.7%. Not only a lot you may think but over the course of Ł100,000 that’s Ł2700 in favour of the casino. A small margin but a margin nonetheless.
So what about red/black or odd/even? Again, it will appear to be a 50/50 bet. But with the inclusion of zero, you actually have an 18 in 37 chance (48.65%). That favours the home by 1.35% which over the course of one day, could equate to thousands of pounds.
But this is nothing when compared with bookmakers.
As I have demonstrated, a “50/50” at a casino is in fact a 48.65/51.35 against you. At bookmakers, the margin is significantly greater. A seemingly 50/50 bet is usually priced up at 9/10 or 1.9 in decimal odds.
This means the bookmaker is giving themselves a tremendous 10% margin on these kind of bets, the most common of that are called “handicap bets”. The handicap bets are set up in such a way that there are only two possible outcomes, rated as equally likely. But no matter what your choice is, the bookie stands to keep 10% of the particular odds. Not fair, you could think. Well, they’re not going to give you anything for free. They may be in the business of making money after all.
So, just how can you counter these edges?
It really is possible with bookmakers to use a system of “handicap doubles”. I will explain this at another time. Otherwise, only good fortune will counter a bookie’s edge and that is not something to rely on.